Meteor Storm
| rarity = Very Rare | type = Global Enchantment | casting_cost = | upkeep_cost = | research_cost = | effects = The following effects occur each turn: * Every unit that is not within a Town is struck by a strength Immolation Damage attack. Units garrisoned inside towns (and Encounter Zone guardians) are unaffected. * Every Building in every Town (except for the caster's own) has 1% chance of collapsing. Outposts are completely destroyed by this effect. }} Meteor Storm is a Very Rare Global Enchantment belonging to the realm. For it may be cast on the overland map to begin its continuous effect. Each turn while the spell is active, every unit that is not garrisoned inside a Town will suffer a -strength Immolation Damage attack (including the caster's own such units). As an Area Damage attack, this will actually hit every of these units, and can devastate entire armies of units in a matter of turns. Furthermore, each Town Building of every rival Town has a flat 1% chance of being destroyed each turn. In addition, all rival Outposts are also laid to ruin by this process, preventing everyone but the caster from founding new Cities while this spell is in effect. The spell requires an Upkeep Cost of per turn to remain in operation. Effects Meteor Storm bombards the surface of both planes with a torrent of flaming rocks, striking creatures and towns alike. The caster's own towns are magically protected from the spell, but other assets continue to be bombarded until the spell is removed. Immolation Damage Attack : Each turn, the game will run through each and every unit on both Planes. Every unit that is not currently garrisoned inside a Town will be targeted by Meteor Storm as described below. Neutral monsters guarding Encounter Zones are exempt (as they don't actually exist on the overland map), and units inside Towns are also ignored. Each unit satisfying the above criteria will receive an attack with a strength of , delivering Immolation Damage. This is a form of Area Damage, which means that every individual of the unit will be struck independently with the same Attack Strength, and has to make rolls and take accordingly. Note that units then receive their normal per-turn healing effect, possibly regaining some of the lost damage immediately. This is more true for large creatures with plenty of , units with innate healing properties, or units under the effect of restorative magic (possibly other Global Enchantments that are also in effect). Immunities :Units that are enchanted with , or possess the Magic Immunity or Regeneration effects from any source, will never suffer any damage from this spell. In addition, units with Fire Immunity defend against it as if they had , which makes them also virtually immune. :The conditional protective Unit Enchantments , , and also grant their Defense bonus against this effect, as does the Large Shield ability. Town Building Destruction At the beginning of every turn, the game runs through each Building of every Town that does not belong to Meteor Storm's caster. For each of them, the game generates a random number between 1 and 100. If the number comes up 1 (a 1% chance), the building is destroyed. There is only one constraint to this effect: structures that are required by another, still standing building may not be destroyed, and are simply ignored regardless of the outcome of the roll. Meteor Storm also eradicates every Outpost every turn that does not belong to its caster, or have one of the protective enchantments listed below. Immunities :There are 3 known ways to protect a Town from the effect of Meteor Storm. Firstly, Nightshades, if available and usable by the Town (it has one of the required Town Buildings), offer periodic protection by attempting to resist the effect every turn. Although the chance of this happening is rather low (10% per turn for a single plant, 18% for 2), and the protection only applies for the single turn in question, it is still better than no protection at all. :There are also 2 Town Enchantments that grant complete immunity against the effect of Meteor Storm, these are and . Not only do they protect all of the buildings in their target Cities, but both of them can also make newly built Outposts able to ignore the destructive effect. :However, either spell needs to be cast in the same turn as creating the Outpost, which means that the casting Wizard needs to have enough Spell Skill to make their spell of choice instant cast (otherwise the spell targeting will either precede the chance to issue a Build command, or the outpost will be destroyed before the spell finishes casting). Usage Meteor Storm may be cast only on the overland map, for the substantial Casting Cost of . Its effects, as described above, will occur at the start of each turn as long as Meteor Storm continues to exist. If any of the human player's units or buildings are destroyed by this spell, a pop-up message regarding this is displayed at the beginning of the turn. There is no notification when enemy towns or units are affected. After casting the spell, its name will appear on the "Overland Enchantments" list in the Magic menu. The color in which the name is printed indicates which wizard controls the spell. If the player controls the spell, then it may be cancelled manually by clicking on the name of the spell. The primary reason to do this would be in order to remove the spell's Upkeep Cost, thus conserving for other spells. Acquisition As a Very Rare spell, Meteor Storm may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least Spellbooks. However, its availability during the game is not guaranteed unless the Wizard acquires at least Spellbooks. Meteor Storm may not be acquired at the start of the campaign regardless of how many Spellbooks the wizard possesses. It must either be Researched during the game, or acquired through other means. Wizards with to Spellbooks have a random chance of being able to Research Meteor Storm during the game. The chance for this spell to appear for research increases with the number of Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay. With or Spellbooks, the spell is guaranteed to appear for Research at some point, if it is not already available for casting. Meteor Storm has a base Research Cost of . With at least Spellbooks, the Meteor Storm spell may be acquired as a reward for winning encounters in creature Lairs, Towers, et cetera, or when conquering the Fortress of a rival wizard who has already researched this spell. Strategy Meteor Storm's primary function is to make it exceptionally difficult to rely on Normal Units or other low-tier creatures. These units are generally far more susceptible to being destroyed by the meteors whenever they leave the protective cover of Towns, so advancing armies full of such units will likely end up being half-destroyed by the time they reach their destination. The Meteor Storm's caster can either sit back with their armies safely inside their own towns (which are protected from the spell), or use powerful units (possibly equipped with one of the immunities above) to patrol the area and/or head off to assault the enemy while they are weakened. Furthermore, Meteor Storm carries out an economic attack on all rivals simultaneously by slowly destroying their towns. The more buildings an enemy town has, the higher the chance that one of them will be destroyed. With a mere 300 total enemy buildings (30 towns with 10 buildings each), the statistical likelyhood of Meteor Storm not collapsing anything is less than 5%. This is in addition to the fact that this enchantment halts the AI's expansion almost completely, as they are not able to found any new Towns while Meteor Storm is in effect. Category:Global Enchantments Category:Chaos